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Where is the name being displayed? Does the name simply wrap, or push out its parent element when the name is too long?
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Jung LeeMar 18 '12 at 13:37

the name will be displayed in a content area of 80 pixels width, this content includes the place name over it's image.
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Jamila HyasatMar 18 '12 at 14:10

If you use fixed-width font like courier/monospace along with px based unit for font size, then you can figure out how many characters will fit in 80 pixel wide area precisely.
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Jung LeeMar 18 '12 at 14:23

1

As written, this is NOT a UX question. I could definitely see it rewritten as a UX question, but then that might not be what the OP was actually looking for.
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Charles BoyungMar 19 '12 at 0:26

Yeah, "how to" sounds like you're asking for how to implement, not design, a lack of truncation.
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Ben Brocka♦Mar 19 '12 at 13:33

1 Answer
1

Without wanting to sound glib, this is exactly the sort of constraint you should try to avoid as a web designer. Even if you're confident that you'll never be required to add more content, extra fields or iconography, requirements change all the time, and you need your designs to be flexible. Especially if your app could be translated, or your design applied to a slightly different service.

Constraints are bad. They make your life hell if a project's scope changes six months down the line (which it often does)

It makes the contents of your fields less accurate

It could force users to submit a different name to another they've recorded elsewhere, which causes data mismatching issues.

Number 2 isn't ideal, but can be ameliorated in certain ways:

Depending on the language, there might be common ways you can abbreviate the name so you can shorten it without creating ambiguity. In the UK, for example, many place names have 'borough' and 'stone' in them - these can be subject to automated abbreviations ("Mexborough" -> "Mexboro."; "Leytonstone" -> "Leytonstn."). However, users might find these odd, and you're assuming your app will never go international.

Truncate the name and provide tooltips / hover-over flyouts. This only works if a user doesn't have to differentiate between places or gather its exact name at a glance.

Really, though, I'd strongly recommend returning to your original design and trying to make it more flexible. If you've set pixel restrictions on text length, you're going to encounter serious issues when a visually impaired user needs to increase text size, or a branding change suddenly breaks all the place names you'd carefully squeezed into your divs. Save yourself the headaches.